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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The amazing physiological effects of being in nature

Shinrin-yoku is a Japanese term that translates to "forest
bathing." It's the process of immersing yourself into nature for
massive and very measurable stress-relieving effects. These effects
have been confirmed by researchers throughout the world on a consistent
basis, and include stress and anxiety reductions as well as boosts in
creativity. Since the Japanese are some of the most stressed and
over-worked people in the world, it makes sense that they are avidly
studying ways to combat this silent killer before it overtakes their
society.

Everyone has an idea that taking a long hike,
or even a short walk, in the woods is relaxing, but the new science
behind what actually happens to us is quite amazing. I first heard a
story on NPR about this a few years ago -- a neuroscientist was
explaining how new parts of the brain light up when someone is
interacting with nature. My first thought when listening to this was,
"Of course it does." We have thousands of years of physiological
evolution completely immersed and connected with nature, so our brains
reacting in powerful ways when we reconnect really shouldn't surprise
anyone.

One
of the leading researchers on the positive physiological impacts of
nature, Miyazaki, a physiological anthropologist and vice director of
Chiba
University’s Center for Environment, Health, and Field Sciences, has
found when his test participants spend time walking and relaxing in the
woods without being tethered to any electronics, they yield a 12.4
percent decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, a seven
percent decrease in sympathetic nerve activity, a 1.4 percent decrease
in blood pressure, and a 5.8 percent decrease in heart rate. Reductions
in the negatives aren't the only findings; on the positive side,
they've also found significant gains in both attention span and
creativity. They've also found the effects to have a lasting impact as
people go back to their daily lives.

Researchers in
the U.S. are finding the same results, and I've started wondering if our
two cultures will treat this new scientific knowledge in the same way.
As Americans, we manipulate data for maximum results, so we'll tweak
our city's green-spaces for maximum nature benefits to keep our workers
healthy and alive. But the Japanese culture comes from a deeper sense
of interconnectedness that we Americans just don't have -- hence the
idea of shinrin-yoku. So instead of just having lunch in a city
park, the Japanese are spending days forest bathing. We should follow
their lead here.

From a conservationist standpoint, our
countries having stressed out workers can be a blessing in disguise.
As the money is trickling in for further research, we might get a
foothold on a tangible reason to start protecting our wild and natural
areas -- you know, other than the fact that we just should!
There is nothing more urgent than the current state of our oceans right
now. What most people do not realize is if our oceans die, then we
die. Human life is not sustainable on this planet with dead oceans, and
we already have massive dead-zone areas, one of the largest being in
the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans.

Dead Zone in the Gulf

Wallace J. Nichols, who volunteers for the National
Academy of Science in San Francisco, is working tirelessly to find grant
money to study the same calming affects of our oceans. Again, this
seems like a no-brainer as most of us choose an ocean setting for a
relaxing vacation, or simply enjoy a small aquarium; but having the
actual science behind it is what moves the money to clean and protect
it. It is not enough to just know that we love the ocean, but knowing why and how we
love the ocean can give us more leverage in funding protection. This
actually falls in line with the current advancements into moral
psychology that show us moral intuition and emotions come before
strategic reasoning. It turns out that the Scottish philosopher, David
Hume (1711-1776), was correct when he said we are ruled by our emotions
and not our rationalization, as Plato (427 BC-347 BC) posited. Knowing
this, we can approach conservatism through our emotional connections,
as opposed to just hitting people with facts and reason. Think of a
coach's pre-game speech to his team: successful speeches come from a
basic emotional level of pride, camaraderie, trust, and desire, not a
rational breakdown of winning percentages. If we start connecting
nature to our intuitive morals and emotions then we will be more
successful at conserving her.

I
was thinking about the activities that mean the most to me and I
realized that one of the things that most of them have in common is they
are immune from the invasion of advertisements. This could even be a
good rule of thumb--spend more time doing things that are immune to
advertisements. Maybe advertisements are like weird chemical names in
food labels--the more there are, the worse it is. But on the other
hand, there are a lot of really great writers out there doing great work
who make a living because ads surround their work, so it isn't that
simple.

Either way, we are learning how we need
nature, forests, and the oceans, not to just stay alive, but to also
stay healthy and happy. Exploring the scientific basis of how they
affect our emotions will hopefully steer us in the right direction of
conservation, and not just speedy corporate manipulation with an
industrial psychology slant. I'm cheering this research on, as all the
people working their asses off on the front lines trying to reverse the
dead zones in the oceans and reverse the steep animal extinction rate
and deforestation rate need all the support they can get.